Safi

[Radu]

Safi is a city in western Morocco, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, and the capital of Safi Province. The city was under protectorate by the Portuguese Empire from 1488 to 1541, was the center of the nation's weaving industry, and became a fortaleza of the Portuguese Crown in 1508. Safi is the main fishing port for the country's sardine industry, and also exports phosphates, textiles and ceramics. During the Second World War, Safi was the site of Operation Blackstone, one of the landing sites for Operation Torch.

 

 

Workshop link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1984015802

 

Development timeline:

Spoiler

 

28th of September - Initial layout sketch

29th of September - First blockout

6th of October - First playtest (10v10)

17th of October - Second playtest (10v10)

24th of October - Third playtest (10v10)

2nd of November - Colour coded the map

3rd of November - Fourth playtest (5v5)

11th of November - Fifth playtest (5v5)

2nd of December - Sixth playtest (5v5)

5th of December - Seventh playtest (10v10)

4th of January -  First art pass on city buildings

7th of January - First art pass on terrain

13th of January - Second art pass on city buildings

20th of January - First art pass on fort

23rd of January - Third art pass on city buildings

24th of January - Optimised nodraw and skybox structure

26th of January - First art pass on background

27th of January - First clipping/collision pass

28th of January - Set map geometry for Terri's auto radar

29th of January - Finished backlog of smaller tasks

30th of January - First pass on 3D skybox

31st of January - Published the map on Steam Workshop and Eight playtest (5v5)

1st of February - Small visual tweaks and issues fixing

2nd of February - Second pass on 3D skybox

3rd - 8th of February - Small issue fixing

 

Hours on record: ~300hrs

*dates mark when tasks were completed

**each art pass represents a gradual increase in form definition, quality and detail

 

 

Edited February 8, 2020 by Radu

[xsanE-]

Looks interesting.

[Radu]

 

[Radu]

Also, finally got my radar done properly 

Spoiler

 

Edited November 18, 2019 by Radu

[blackdog]

Colour coding is definitely a good thing in level design, great to try implement from draft.

What texture set you are using?

[JorisCeoen]

35 minutes ago, blackdog said:

Colour coding is definitely a good thing in level design, great to try implement from draft.

What texture set you are using?

Could you specify what purpose color coding serves? I'm new to this term, hadn't heard of it before in Level Design... interested to hear what's it used for!

[Radu]

2 hours ago, blackdog said:

Colour coding is definitely a good thing in level design, great to try implement from draft.

What texture set you are using?

It's the default floor dev texture from Source SDK, but I made several variations of it using my desired colours.

1 hour ago, JorisCeoen said:

Could you specify what purpose color coding serves? I'm new to this term, hadn't heard of it before in Level Design... interested to hear what's it used for!

Colour coding implies that you assign certain colours to your game elements or areas to make them visually more easy to read. For instance, in many games, especially multiplayer ones, the AI factions will have a specific colour scheme to make them easily identifiable. The best example I can give is TF2 where you have your red/blue teams and specifically coloured map areas. However, in more asymmetric games like CS:GO, where the aim is for realism and the elements are not as black and white, you can use colours to make certain areas stand out from each other. I think some Call of Duty maps manage this well to some extent. Of course, you don't want to overwhelm the player with too much colour. 

[blackdog]

On 11/3/2019 at 12:09 PM, JorisCeoen said:

Could you specify what purpose color coding serves? I'm new to this term, hadn't heard of it before in Level Design... interested to hear what's it used for!

What @Radu said is correct, I want to add another example that is a common sore point in (community) CS maps: doors.

It’s important to colour code doors to allow players to ignore doors that are there for decoration/realism VS interactive doors.

On top of that you might want to make things very clear by removing door knobs/handles from non-interactive doors, even put an obstacle in front.

[Radu]

Update time! Mentioned a few noteworthy ones, but there's been several adjustments in all areas.

CT spawn has a new small side area to give players a safer option when rotating. And the double doors entrance to A has been replaced with a more isolated entrance to give CTs playing mid some time to react should the site be taken by Terrorists. Last but not least, the site now has a second entrance through the fort tower that leads to a small upper section.

The entrances to A site viewed from above. The site itself has also seen some minor tweaks to allow for better entry and move interesting plays between cover points.

T side entry to A site has now been merged with the nearby arches and the platform has been lowered enough to allow for a single jump onto it. Timings have also been adjusted so that Terrorists arrive ahead of CTs and have some time to set up.

The area ahead of B site has been further opened to allow Terrorists a longer angle into the choke point from the safety of the pillars. Additional cover as been added near the secondary platform to the left. Timings have also been adjusted for faster access than previous version.

Terrorists Spawn is now more open and fluid and features two entry points that merge into mid.

The Radar:

Spoiler

 

Edited November 10, 2019 by Radu

[Radu]

You guys like fullbright editor view? cause that's a big part of mapping too

[Radu]

Now, remember kids, you saw it here first, crazed gunman sets wild chickens free

 

[Radu]

It's time for a quick progress update. I've cut back a bit on the colour, choosing to use it for the building base and certain details like doors, windows, roofs etc which is in line with the irl reference. I still need to add some more basic details, but textures should come into play towards the end of the month.

[Radu]

It's been a while since I posted anything, so here's a sneak peak at the current situation. Cutting it pretty close as usual, but I'm gonna make it. 

[Radu]

Never doing a spiral stairways inside cylinder for a competitive game EVER AGAIN, but with that being said - the hardest part about the level is pretty much covered. All the fort geo is on grid, stairway is clipped and first art pass on it is more or less done. Gonna tackle the underground tunnel tomorrow.

Edited January 19, 2020 by Radu

[DeadKnife]

Copy paste the spiral staircase from now on, even change whole layouts if it means keeping it in